Tina at the Train Station

© victor m maldonado

During the late Eighties & the early Nineties San Francisco experienced the birth of an underground subculture that was musically inclined, networked together & secretly celebrating the universe & humankind with the rhythms of what was being called House Music. It was during this time period that I began documenting this subculture, one which I really enjoyed being associated with. This movement was given many labels but regardless of what those on the outside thought of it, to me, besides finding Jesus, was one of the most spiritual experiences of my life, being among with what some considered the outcasts of society.

Some friends of mine at the time were organizing some of these functions, sometimes at a secluded beach or under a freeway overpass in the open corn fields of Northern California, but always in the wee hours of the night until sunrise. As my day shoots were wrapping up & night approached, the networking would begin – who had the turntables? who was going to DJ? This is Tina’s test shot at an abandoned train station in Northern California, she was one of the many models I shot & who would often invite me to the underground functions

— victor m maldonado